Have you seen the most popular blogs from last month? 

1. Building Rapport Over the Phone
By Maggie Pugesek

Having a process for handling phone calls ensures you not only have a clear understanding of your goals, but also a path to reach them.

2. Why Educating Car Shoppers Is So Important!
By Russ Chandler

The complex dynamics of the automotive industry are what greatly affect the availability, price and depreciation of vehicles.  

3. 4 Things You Need To Know About Customer Surveys 
By Maddy Low

One thing that you can do with the time that you have customers inside your dealership not actively shopping or participating, is hand them a survey. 

4. Why You Need a Better Goal for 2017 than Simply “Sell More Cars”
By Jim Douglas

With so many things out of dealers control, even if you do sell more cars you’re not guaranteed to make more money. Just for fun, how about 3 things dealers have no control over that impact sales. 

5. Top 3 Marketing Companies to Visit at NADA 
By Brad Paschal

If you missed NADA, here are the cutting edge companies you missed visiting. 

Do you work in a franchise dealership? Are you a director level or higher? Do you love DrivingSales and want to be more involved with the events?

If you answered YES to these questions, you're the perfect candidate for our DrivingSales Dealer Panel. 

Being on the Dealer Panel means you'll pick speakers for DSES, Canadian Dealer Forum, and President's Club. You'll also direct the dialogue of these events, be the voice of change and improvement, and much more! We're looking for people who want to be engaged in our community, and really influence the industry as a whole. You'll get an inside look at DrivingSales, as well as other aspects of automotive.

As a thank-you, you'll get free passes for each of the events that you're involved with.

We will review your application and contact those who meet our requirements.

Unfortunately, you won't be allowed to be a speaker at our event if you are on the Dealer Panel. 

To some degree, you have to like cars or be interested in cars to work in the auto industry. Even if you didn't start out loving cars, after a few months working with them, you learn to appreciate a great engine or a classic body. Hopefully then, you'll appreciate this dash around the world to look at a variety of cars from many countries. 

Infographic courtesy www.osv.ltd.uk.

The game was very intense, there was a lot of yelling and screaming at my house from everyone, regardless of who they were cheering for. In the end, the New England Patriots took away a victory in the first overtime in Super Bowl history. 

But the biggest Super Bowl draw for me is usually the commercials. Companies normally pull out all the stops to make a great commercial, and this time was no exception. Take this quiz and let us know which Super Bowl car commercial was the very best, in your opinion. Need a refresher? Check out all the Super Bowl car commercials below.

Kia:

Honda:

Ford:

Lexus:

Mercedes:

Alfa Romeo:

Audi:

Hyundai:

Buick:

*Image courtesy: NFL.com

Dominion Dealer Solutions’ Dealer Management System Now Integrated with Chrysler’s wiADVISORTM

Norfolk, VA – January 3, 2017- Dominion Dealer Solutions announced today that Dominion ACCESS®, a full-featured dealer management system, has integrated with FCA USA LLC’s wiADVISOR, powered by Dealer-FX. Through this integration, Dominion ACCESS provides wireless, factory-connected service advisor technology to its dealers, arming service advisors with real-time factory information and helping customers get through service lanes faster.

The wiADVISOR technology instantly provides vehicle service history, customer profile information and factory-required maintenance information for Chrysler, Jeep, Dodge, Ram, Fiat and SRT vehicles. Service advisors plug the small wireless device into the vehicle’s diagnostic port in the service lane to download vehicle data and transmit it to a tablet computer for a more accurate and seamless service write-up experience. Customers no longer need to fill out forms or remember license plate numbers when bringing in their vehicles for service at Chrysler dealerships.

Dominion ACCESS is a Windows-based dealer management system that includes document archiving, drill-down reporting and vehicle rental as part of its core suite of applications. Dominion ACCESS gives dealers a built-in prospecting tool, the ability to reference closed deals, personalized dashboards, award-winning customer service, and one customer and vehicle record for all dealership departments. The Dominion ACCESS software has flexible contract terms and no add-on fees for dealers.

“We are pleased to be the pilot DMS for Dealer-FX’s new API. It will give our Chrysler dealers the service write-up tools they need to maximize every opportunity on the drive,” noted Van Koppersmith, president of Dominion DMS for Dominion Dealer Solutions.  “This real-time interface is another technology Dominion has invested in as a commitment to support our valued customers.”

For more information on the Dominion ACCESS dealer management system, or the benefits of the wiADVISOR integration for your dealership, please call 877-421-1040.

Dominion Dealer Solutions Delivers Improved Shopper Engagement with ShopMyWay Website

Norfolk, VA – January 10, 2017- Dominion Dealer Solutions, premier provider of responsive websites for automotive dealers, announced today it has expanded its ShopMyWay website experience to include deeper reporting metrics and increased transparency, improving shopper engagement. With ShopMyWay’s conversion rates more than double the national industry average, today’s auto dealers can give their online shoppers the right information at the right time in the vehicle purchase cycle.

With ShopMyWay, dealers now have integrated website and conversion tools such as My Payment, My Car, and My Trade. Dealers using Dominion websites will see a deeper level of reporting because ShopMyWay integrates with other Dominion Digital Solutions such as Prime Response and VinVelocity. Dealers taking advantage of Dominion’s Prime Response reputation and social media management will have access to ROI reports on all MyPayment leads. The integration with VinVelocity enables dealers to identify the quality of traffic sources from various third-party channels.

“MyPayment, our shop-by-payment solution, has generated an average increase of 77% more highly qualified leads from our dealers’ websites,” noted Nicole Case, general manager for Dominion Digital Marketing.

Dealers using Dominion’s responsive websites are already familiar with its best-in-class performance including two-second page load time, complete integration with Dominion Dealer Specialties’ inventory, and the science-driven design behind its vehicle detail (VDPs) and search results pages (SRPs). Today’s automotive dealers also experience improved consumer engagement provided by ShopMyWay. Dealers using ShopMyWay through Dominion’s responsive websites have .123% higher organic traffic, 54% higher page views, and 63% more VDP views than dealers using other automotive website vendors.

"The best way to increase business today is to build trust with online shoppers. Dominion's ShopMyWay experience enables automotive dealers to strengthen the relationship with their online shoppers without having to depend on third-party leads," stated Sean Stansell, product manager for Dominion’s websites.

ShopMyWay gives dealers the information they need to assist online consumers in choosing the right vehicle with the best payment option and attaining the optimum valuation for their trade. For more information on the benefits of Dominion’s responsive websites and ShopMyWay for your automotive dealership, please call 877-421-1040.

Dominion Dealer Solutions Releases Additional Marketing Modules
 for its Digital Dashboard

Norfolk, VA – January 19, 2017 –Dominion Dealer Solutions has released new equity mining and dealership fixed operations advertising modules in its dealer-facing Dominion Dashboard®. Dominion is an award-winning industry leader in reputation management, social media marketing, responsive websites and equity mining.

Historically, the Dominion Dashboard has served Dominion’s U.S. automotive dealer customers with real-time reporting for digital marketing and advertising, using the automotive industry standard -- Google Analytics. This unique reporting solution provides a single access point for Dominion’s solutions that include inventory management and merchandising, responsive websites, reputation management, search, email marketing, and social media management. The digital dashboard functionality gives dealers the highest level of transparency in their marketing campaigns and results.

In advance of the 2017 National Auto Dealer Association convention and expo and in conjunction with Dominion’s focus on dealership fixed operations, dealers now receive real-time Google Analytics reporting on all equity mining and fixed operations campaigns. These additions have further defined the dashboard as a true marketing epicenter, with the clarity and visibility necessary for automotive dealers to build successful, evolving marketing strategies.

“The addition of these modules to the Dashboard solves the long-standing problem for automotive dealers of having to reach out to multiple vendors to consolidate their campaign results. Now, today’s dealers can go to one place to determine their ROI across all of their marketing channels -- the Dominion Dashboard,” stated Nicole Case, general manager for Dominion Digital Marketing.

With the addition of an equity mining widget integrated through DealActivator, dealers can measure the success of their equity mining campaigns in real time. Dominion’s omni-channel fixed operations module within the Dashboard adds transparent measurement to the digital marketing campaigns that drive both traffic and revenue for a dealer’s fixed operations. It enables dealers to reduce costs, enjoy higher traffic, drive additional revenue per RO, and build deeper customer loyalty.

Built on Dominion’s shopper-centric philosophy, this marketing hub provides a roll-up of key website, social media, equity mining, inventory merchandising, reputation management, SEM and fixed operations advertising metrics. It simplifies a dealer’s reporting tools by bringing together key consumer shopping behavior metrics in one user-friendly dashboard.

For more information on the benefits of the Dominion Dashboard for your automotive dealership or to schedule a demo, please call 877-421-1040.

Here are some interesting insights about remote employees vs. office employees. I know many positions within a dealership don't have the option of remote work, but I'm curious about those who do have the option to work from home. I personally feel I am more productive when I work from home, but there are often conflicting ideas of creating a fun office culture, working with teams and having in person meetings, etc. What are your thoughts?

Last month, the was our top blog. So we decided to interview Sales Humor creator Ken Kupchik to get learn more about his successful social media platforms, and laughter is the best medicine for us in the auto industry.

Toyota dealerships will now be able to increase vehicle sales with automotiveMastermind

NEW YORK (Jan. 12, 2017) – With so many brands and models for consumers to choose from, automotive dealerships and manufacturers find themselves in a steep competition to target the right customer at the right time with the right offer and message. automotiveMastermind, the leading predictive analytics and marketing automation technology for automotive dealerships, is transforming the sales process by empowering sales teams with key insights and valuable information on its top prospects. Today, the company announced that Toyota dealerships across the country will now be able to partner with automotiveMastermind.

“Toyota is always on the cutting edge of technology and innovation; designing and building vehicles that consistently exceed expectations. The reveal of the redesigned subcompact crossover SUV, the CH-R, is one example; with Toyota’s focus on a growing and competitive vehicle class, our technology can help dealers identify the rapidly changing consumer behavior toward crossover SUVs,” said Marco Schnabl, co-CEO and founder of automotiveMastermind. “We have experienced tremendous success with Toyota’s sister brand, Lexus, just one month after a successful pilot program, we secured about 20 percent of all Lexus dealerships. We are looking forward to providing the Toyota sales teams with relevant insights about their customers, helping transform their existing sales process and ultimately closing more sales.”

Toyota becomes the ninth automotive brand to the automotiveMastermind platform. The company is currently working with Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Honda, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and MINI.

"This opens up a new opportunity for us to communicate with millions of existing Toyota customers to improve sales and retention for their brand," said Andrew Gillman, vice president of sales and marketing for automotiveMastermind. “Our behavior prediction technology shows dealers what customers they should be contacting and marketing to in order to increase sales in the fastest, most efficient way. We have seen our dealer partners experience significant increases in sales as well as growth in customer retention immediately upon implementing our technology.”

The technology leverages Big Data analytics. In addition to dealer management system (DMS) data, more than 1,000 data points from external sources are analyzed through the propriety algorithm to generate the Behavior Prediction Score ® or BPS. This information is fed directly into the salesperson’s desktop, providing customer specific talking points and behavior drivers, complemented with customized micro-targeted predictive marketing campaigns that are delivered directly to consumers.

automotiveMastermind has a proven track record of transforming the dealership experience for consumers and revolutionizing the way auto dealers and manufacturers, find, engage and earn longstanding customer relationships.

###

About automotiveMastermind®

Founded in 2012, automotiveMastermind is the leading provider of predictive analytics and marketing automation software for the automotive industry. The company’s cloud-based technology helps dealers precisely predict automobile-buying behavior and automates the creation of micro-targeted consumer communications, leading to proven higher sales and more consistent customer retention. automotiveMastermind currently works with hundreds of dealerships from various automotive manufacturers, including Acura, Audi, BMW, Cadillac, Honda, Lexus, Mercedes-Benz and MINI and has plans to further expand its OEM partnerships in 2017. automotiveMastermind is headquartered in New York City and San Francisco and has more than doubled its employee count in the last year. For more information, visit automotivemastermind.com.

Originally Published By Bloomberg

Volkswagen AG’s supervisory board and U.S. officials are set to sign off on a $4.3 billion settlement of U.S. criminal and civil penalties for rigging diesel-powered cars to cheat on emissions tests, the latest step in the carmaker’s effort to resolve the scandal.

The agreement with the U.S. Department of Justice and customs authorities will include a guilty plea, VW said Tuesday. The board plans to meet Wednesday to review the agreement.

U.S. officials are holding a press conference Wednesday afternoon to announce the settlement. Attending the event will be Attorney General Loretta Lynch, EPA Administrator Gina McArthy, FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, Acting Deputy Secretary Russell C. Deyo for the Department of Homeland Security and U.S. Attorney Barbara L. McQuade from the Eastern District of Michigan in Detroit. 

The accord raises the committed cost of settlements in the scandal so far to more than $23 billion in the U.S. and Canada, blowing through the $19.2 billion the carmaker had set aside to resolve the disputes. At the same time, it would remove one of the last big regulatory obstacles for Volkswagen before the Jan. 20 inauguration of Donald Trump as U.S. president, enabling the carmaker to begin rebuilding its reputation in the country and focus on plans for clean-energy vehicles.

“Although the settlement is higher than reports had indicated, we view the resolution as a positive catalyst for Volkswagen since it removes the final known major liability” from the diesel scandal, even with other legal issues pending, analysts at Goldman Sachs, including Stefan Burgstaller in London, said in a report to clients.

U.S. courts must still approve the settlement. VW also is involved in investor lawsuits in the U.S. and in Germany related to how the emissions-test rigging affected the stock price, as well as consumer lawsuits and a criminal probe in Germany.

Concluding those disputes will be important as CEO Matthias Mueller seeks financial resources to shift the carmaker -- which almost certainly overtook Toyota Motor Corp. as the world’s biggest last year -- to new technology including electric powering systems and automated driving. That strategy will cost more than $10.5 billion in investments by 2025, the company said in June.

At least one employee is facing charges in the U.S. and another has already pleaded guilty related to the scheme. U.S. prosecutors are planning to charge high-level VW executives based in Germany, a person familiar with the matter said.

The draft settlement calls for strengthening compliance systems and installing an independent monitor for three years, Volkswagen said in the statement. The company didn’t say in its statement whether additional individuals would be charged or plead guilty. The Justice Department declined to comment.

U.S. authorities uncovered the carmaker’s efforts to deliberately cheat on emissions tests on diesel vehicles in 2015. The rigged engines had been installed in 11 million vehicles worldwide, and cost former CEO Martin Winterkorn his job.

Bridge loan

The carmaker, which plans to post a provision in the fourth quarter of 2016, has the resources to absorb the costs. The company had net liquidity of $32.6 billion in the automotive division at the end of the third quarter, and extended a $21 billion bridge loan facility through mid-2017 to provide an additional financial cushion and protect its credit rating.

Volkswagen’s 2016 financial performance will be hurt by the settlement, Porsche Automobil Holding SE, the investment vehicle of the Porsche and Piech billionaire families that controls 52 percent of VW’s voting stock, said in a statement on Tuesday.

VW engineer James Liang pleaded guilty in September in U.S. federal court in Detroit to conspiring to defraud U.S. regulators and consumers. Liang, who was involved in creating a defeat device so cars with 2.0-liter diesel engine could pass emissions tests, is scheduled to be sentenced May 3 and faces as long as five years in prison. He’s cooperating with prosecutors.

Oliver Schmidt, the company’s liaison with U.S. environmental regulators, was arrested Saturday in Florida and is scheduled to appear in court there again Thursday.

Photo credit: Bloomberg

The 16-month saga could still have further to run, with U.S. authorities investigating who was individually responsible for the cheating and VW facing probes and lawsuits in Europe and elsewhere.

Partial victory

"This is a partial victory, but VW is by no means out of the woods yet," said Ingo Speich, a fund manager at Union Investment which holds about 0.6 percent of VW preference shares. "There are still considerable litigation risks."

"Facts need to be revealed now and, if necessary, further steps need to be taken regarding individuals to regain the trust of capital markets," Speich said.

Most analysts had expected the U.S. settlement, which VW has raced to conclude before the Obama administration bows out on Jan. 20, to cost the carmaker around 3 billion euros.

VW admitted in September 2015 to installing secret software in hundreds of thousands of U.S. diesel cars to cheat exhaust emissions tests and make them appear cleaner than they were on the road, and that as many as 11 million vehicles could have similar software installed worldwide.

Questions remain

Erik Bomans, a managing partner at Deminor which is working with some investors on a claim against VW, said those responsible for the scandal had to be brought to justice.

"What we hope is that there has not been a trade-off in the discussions between Volkswagen and the U.S. Department of Justice, a trade-off that could be 'we as a company plead guilty and we are willing to pay a big fine, but in exchange for that, you, Department of Justice, you allow us ... not to mention anything about the personal involvement of certain key, senior managers of the company'," he said.

Greg Archer, director of clean vehicles at green campaigners Transport and Environment, said VW's admission of criminal misconduct in the U.S. was unlikely to have implications for lawsuits in Europe, where a loophole in the regulations has effectively allowed automakers to routinely exceed official emissions limits.

The European Commission in December began legal action against Germany, Britain and five other EU member states for failing to police emissions test cheating.

"They are ineffective and they are in urgent need of reform," Archer said of the national regulators responsible for approving new vehicles in the EU.